Congratulations to Kiyoko Ando, a graduate of the noncredit ESL program and former student in the ESL Digital Storytelling class, who has made the transition to credit ESL classes at MiraCosta College! She recently was awarded a $500 scholarship, (shown here with Dean of Community Education Lynda Lee) named for and founded former noncredit ESL instructor Brooke Brummit, whose death was untimely. Kiyoko has demonstrated the maturity, perseverence, and drive to succeed in college and in whatever she does. She is definitely a talented person, whose artistic, esthetic sense is depicted in her class work. I had the privelege of having Kiyoko in VESL class, where I learned that an injury derailed her fledging career as a professional dancer. Her current goal, as shown in the digital story she created for a career research project for VESL class, is to apply her talents and artistic skills in the field of floral design. However, if the floral design career doesn't work out, watch out Steven Speilberg. Check out Kiyoko's digital story about a Turning Point in her life.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The morning ESL program is gifted by the presence of Hooshang Nayak, a retired diesel locomotive engineer, who moved to the United States from his native Iran more than 20 years ago.

Hooshang got his feet wet with using computers as a tool for practicing English when he made a video resume in the Vocational ESL class. His interest was sparked, and Hooshang was hooked, spending late nights at home learning more about PowerPoint and Movie Maker. Hooshang’s natural abilities with and interest in technology led him to enroll in the ESL Digital Storytelling class, which was first offered Spring 2008.

Hooshang’s father himself was an immigrant in Iran, having come from India, and owned a movie theater there. As a young boy, Hooshang helped his father, much like the father and son in the Italian film “Cinema Paradiso.” Now, at the age of 85, Hooshang said his boyhood dream of “making movies” is a reality.

In his first digital story, “Good or Bad Story,” Hooshang narrates an Iranian folk story his mother told him, whose message is universal: What goes around comes around. Hooshang has since translated and remade the digital story in his native language, Farsi, and has shared it with his grandchildren, who also live in the U.S., as a way of preserving the story. More recently Hooshang has collaborated long distance with his daughter, an artist living in New York City whose artwork he featured in the digital story, to tell the story of his own father.

As Hooshang demonstrates, it is never to late to learn English, learn to use computers, and use digital storytelling as a means to capture, safeguard, and commemorate the past and the people who have shaped who we are.